"I had no intention to return. But when the opportunity presented itself to finish a story that we had begun with these new characters, to tell the last chapter of their story, it felt like there was a chance to do it in a way where we could go beyond, and do better than we did in Seven," he told Rolling Stone.

He'll retake the reins from "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson (who's moving on to create an entirely new "Star Wars" trilogy) and finish the story he started.

"I learned so much in that movie and I saw that this was a chance to sort of realize something that we hadn't quite achieved — and part of that was it was simply the beginning of these new characters and their story. The opportunity to sort of take what we had learned, to take the feeling of who these characters are and what they are and give them a final chapter that felt in the spirit of what we begun? It was too delicious of an opportunity to pass up."

While fans may have hoped for a new voice to complete the trilogy, at least one person was ecstatic to see Abrams return — star Daisy Ridley.

"Everyone was saying it was going to be Rian and everything, so I was genuinely quite surprised and was like 'Oh my God!' and I started crying immediately with three people in the office," she said. "So I emailed J.J. saying, 'Oh my God I am crying.' And he goes, 'Oh my God, me too.'"

Luke Skywalker's peaceful and solitary existence gets upended when he encounters Rey, a young woman who shows strong signs of the Force. Her desire to learn the ways of the Jedi forces Luke to make a decision that changes their lives forever. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead the First Order in an all-out assault against Leia and the Resistance for supremacy of the galaxy. Read More

Thirty years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, the galaxy faces a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order. When a defector named Finn crash-lands on a desert planet, he meets Rey (Daisy Ridley), a tough scavenger whose droid contains a top-secret map. Together, the young duo joins forces with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to make sure the Resistance receives the intelligence concerning the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the last of the Jedi Knights. Read More